"Experience Everlasting Life"
Sermon Transcript for April 11, 2004
Scripture Reading: Luke 23:32-43
By Rev. Mike Beck
Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, has had a powerful impact across our land. During Lent here at Grace, we have focused on themes related to this film in a series of sermons entitled, “Experience the Passion”. This morning we want to review the earlier three messages and then add one additional reality very quickly that God wants us to experience through the passion of Christ.
On the cross, God wants us to experience pure love. There was a lady who came to me following the Maundy Thursday service and said, “I haven’t yet seen the film. I’m going with my husband on Friday.” And I said, “The brutality in the film is hard to watch. We’ll never think about the crucifixion of Christ, those who have seen the film, quite the same way.” And I said, “My prayer for people is that they leave the theater not focusing on the brutality but with this thought in mind: “He did that for me! What awesome love that He would do it for me!”
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Charles Wesley said it in the hymn, “Amazing love! How can it be? That thou my God would die for me?”
In the cross, God wants us to experience complete forgiveness. He wants us to receive forgiveness of God for our sins. We focused on these verses from Ephesians, reading in The Message translation. “Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, His blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people…free of penalties and punishments chalked up by our misdeeds.” And then I love the way John Peterson puts it. “And not just barely free either. Abundantly free!”
But then we spoke about two other aspects of forgiveness. How critically important it is that we not only receive God’s forgiveness but that we forgive ourselves. For if we have received Christ’s gifts of salvation, we continue to mess up. We need to repent of those sins. But we need to remind our self of those words of Paul in Romans 8:1 when he says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” If you are in Christ, your sins—past, present, and future—are covered by the blood of Christ. But then we concluded, reminded ourselves, that we must extend this forgiveness to others. Echoing the words of Jesus on the cross who said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The Bible, friends, is very plain in its teaching that if we are not willing to forgive others, God’s forgiveness of our sin is nullified. God understands how difficult that is to do. At times persons hurt us to the very core of our being. God is patient with us. In fact, this simple prayer is all that God expects of us when we have been hurt and wounded and as we begin what is often a very long process towards forgiveness. All God wants is this prayer: “Lord, I’m willing to forgive, but You’ll need to provide me the grace and strength to do it. I can’t do it on my own.”
And the Bible promises when we pray that prayer God does His part! And when we forgive those who have wronged us, here is the pay off in our life: We get freedom instead of bondage. We get life instead of death. Many of you know persons who they are alive physically but they are dead emotionally. Why? Because they are hanging on and are unwilling to forgive that hurt! And we discover a future where God makes all things new.
Last week we talked about God and the passion of Christ wants us to experience ultimate wholeness. This concept of “wholeness” which is another word for healing is a beautiful, Biblical image of the salvation Christ came to bring us. Read with me these words in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.” And then read these words from II Corinthians 5:17 with me: “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. The old has gone; the new has come!”
We spoke last week of how God transforms the broken pieces of our life and makes us whole. It begins when we acknowledge our sin and need of God. In today’s scripture lesson, one of the two thieves on the cross illustrates this step that leads to wholeness when he rebuked the other thief on the cross with these words: “Don’t you fear God? We are being punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.”
We talked of the second step to wholeness, one we often neglect, which is to receive God’s gift of community. We spoke of God’s design for the church to be a place where persons can walk through these doors—hurting, struggling, and knowing full-well that they don’t have their lives together—but finding here “help, hope, and home” in Christ and through the love and support of His people. We talked of our philosophy of ministry and how “lives are best transformed in small groups”. We talked about the fact that wholeness of heart and life is a process. Thus we need to pray often the words of this old prayer: “Lord, I ain’t what I ought to be; and I ain’t yet what I’m going to be; but thanks to You, I ain’t what I used to be!”
And the fourth and final step to wholeness lies in receiving continually God’s act of grace. The prophet Isaiah spoke centuries before Christ’s coming about how our healing would come about. In Isaiah 53:5, he says: “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him; and by his wounds we are made whole.’
In the passion of Christ, God wants us to experience pure love—complete forgiveness—ultimate wholeness—and finally, everlasting life. In Paul Powell’s book, When the Hurt Won’t Go Away, he has this quote in his chapter entitled, “The Question of the Ages”: “God has placed in us a strong longing for immortality. It is a strange, restless feeling with which we are never quite at home on earth. Has God put that in our hearts just to mock us? Do you suppose that a good God would allow people to cherish such longings and then shatter them in jest? I think not.”
The preaching of the early Apostles--including Peter who denied His Lord, and Paul who before his conversion was a persecutor of the early church—was like a broken record. They preached the ultimate three-point sermon—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. John 11:25-26 says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, even though they die, yet shall they live.” John 14:1-2 says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. And I am going there to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you shall be also.” There’s an eternal home in Heaven today with my name on it. What about you?
The story of the thief on the cross in a very simple way shows us the steps to experiencing eternal life. When this thief was carrying his cross to Golgotha that morning, the last thing on his mind was that he would end the day in Paradise. But he did! At the close of Lee Strobel’s powerful presentation, “The Case for Easter”, he gave us this simple formula:
Believe + Receive = Become
One of the three men being crucified that day hurled insults at Jesus saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? If so, save yourself and us.” That’s when the other thief responded, “Shut your mouth…we’re simply receiving the just consequences of our wrong doing.” Instead of hurling insults, this other thief not only acknowledged his sin, but he realized there was something dramatically different about this man Jesus who was being executed just a few feet from him. He believed that Jesus was indeed the Christ. But last Sunday evening, Lee Strobel reminded us that belief by itself is never enough. Life in Christ is more than a “head trip”. We must not only believe, but we must receive the relationship God wants to give us. This thief on the cross turned to Jesus in simple trust and said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your Kingdom.” And in that instant, he received the most wonderful gift a person can ever be given—the free gift of everlasting love.
He had become a part of “the family of God”; and in one of those mansions that Jesus had prepared in Heaven, a “sold” sign went up with his name on it! Is that true of you? Do you know the love of God? Do you know complete forgiveness? Do you know ultimate wholeness in Christ? And through the passion of the Christ, have you received everlasting life? You can. And it’s found in believing and receiving the good news of Jesus Christ.
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